Abia State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has said the former administration of Okezie Ikpeazu did not spend N10 billion on Port Harcourt road in Aba, as stated by Governor Alex Otti on Sunday.
This is even as the party has challenged Otti to set up an independent technical verification panel to verify the truth about drainage and road construction works on Port Harcourt road.
Otti had, during his media chat with journalists on Sunday night, stated: ” I know that some monies had been taken in the past. Just like Port Harcourt road where our predecessors spent a whopping 10 billion naira, 2017 money exchange rate of 280 naira.
“That money was taken and nothing was done on Port Harcourt road other than breaking people’s houses.”
But the PDP in a statement by its Vice Chairman and acting Publicity Secretary, Abraham Amah, challenged Otti to set up an independent panel which should comprise of engineers from the Federal Ministry of Works and certified project auditors to verify and publish the actual amount of money spent by Ikpeazu as well as report the level of work done by the past administration on Port Harcourt road in Aba.
Abraham, who claimed that the Ikpeazu administration he served, did about 40 percent of the Port Harcourt road, also advised the Abia governor to focus on delivering democracy dividends to the Abians, rather than criticizing his predecessor.
“We hereby propose that an independent technical verification panel that would include engineers from the Federal Ministry of Works, from the Otti and Ikpeazu administrations, as well as certified project auditors, be established.”
Amah further advised that the said panel should verify documents showing how much the Ikpeazu administration paid so far to contractors for Port Harcourt road and other flood control works on some Aba roads.
The party equally suggested that the technical verification panel should also verify and publish details about the N30 billion contract for recently awarded Port Harcourt road in Aba to cross-check the Ikpeazu administration’s contract records side-by-side with Otti’s statement.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the Ikpeazu administration never spent anything near the Otti propaganda sum of N10bn on the 5.9km Port Harcourt Road, Aba”, he said.